The Tea Party is making Congress’ Republicans less green

The Tea Party is making Congress’ Republicans less green, with already-low ratings falling often to the single digits, according to the new annual rating of Congress’ by the League of Conservation Voters.

And the historic bipartisan cooperation in Washington’s congressional delegation, which has protected places ranging from the North Cascades to the Columbia River Gorge, seems to have vanished.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Photo: SY BEAN / SEATTLEPI.COM

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Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Photo: SY BEAN / SEATTLEPI.COM

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Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Photo: SY BEAN / SEATTLEPI.COM

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Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Photo: SY BEAN / SEATTLEPI.COM

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Weekend visitors fish on the Taylor River, which connects to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River, Saturday Jun 21, 2013. Pending legislation is hoping add the Middle Fork to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area in the Cascade Mountain Range. less

Weekend visitors fish on the Taylor River, which connects to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River, Saturday Jun 21, 2013. Pending legislation is hoping add the Middle Fork to the protected Alpine Wilderness ... more

Photo: SY BEAN / SEATTLEPI.COM

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Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Photo: SY BEAN / SEATTLEPI.COM

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Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

Proposed legislation would add the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the protected Alpine Wilderness Lakes area, Saturday Jun 21, 2013.

By contrast, two powerful House Republicans — Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Doc Hastings — each receive scores of 4. In short, they voted for the pro-environment position on just one out of 28 votes.

McMorris Rodgers is chair of the House Republican Conference, and a top deputy to House Speaker John Boehner. Hastings is chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, lately the burial ground for environmental legislation.

The low Republican ratings reflect “the dramatic influence of the Tea Party, which has caused the House Republicans’ average to continue a dismal decline,” the League of Conservation Voters reported.

The average score for House Republicans was 17 (out of 100) in 2008, and has since fallen to just 5 percent.

“There is a jarring disconnect between the frightening climate change developments of 2012 and results of our National Environmental Scorecard,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., has been applauded for some environmental stands — even given a Theodore Roosevelt Award — and had ratings in the 60’s during his second and third terms. He rated at just 21 in the LCV’s scorecard for 2013.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.: Bipartisan legislation to expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and protect the Middle Fork-Snoqualmie River, are stalled in his committee..

Reichert is lead sponsor on bipartisan legislation that would add 22,000 acres of King County wildlands to the existing Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, and protect the Middle Fork-Snoqualmie River.

He and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., are sponsoring a bill to designate the Mountains to Sound Greenway as a National Heritage Area.

Although this legislation had drawn no opposition, it is bottled up in Hastings’ committee. The Alpine Lakes-Middle Fork bill has been stuck there for three years.

As with McMorris Rodgers and Hastings, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., scored just 4 in the League of Conservation Voters scorecard.

A trio of reshman Democrats — DelBene and Reps. Denny Heck and Derek Kilmer — fared much better. DelBene and Heck had scores of 96, Heck garnering a 93.

Other scores for Washington delegation Democrats were 89 for Rep. Rick Larsen, 96 for Rep. Jim McDermott and 89 for Rep. Adam Smith.